Cafe Surfas
Monday, October 29, 2007 19:07
We headed over to Surfas to pick up a couple of clothing items for our Halloween costumes. Ours was a busy day with a few other stops, but we timed it so that we could have lunch at the Surfas Cafe.
I had heard mixed reviews, which is the best way to get me to try a place. If I get a bad review, I usually skip it, if I get a great review, my expectations are usually too high. To cut to the chase, my review was that the food was great!
My wife ordered a Buffalo Burger and I went for the Haute Dog. The menu is limited mainly to salads and sandwiches. All of the options looked appetizing and even without a ton of choices, it wasn’t easy to narrow things down. I angled for the sandwiches but that Haute Dog caught my eye.
The Buffalo Burger ($8.95) was juicy and flavorful. It came on their panini bread, topped with onion, arugula, tomato, Fiscalini white cheddar and
Sweet Harissa Mayo. As far as I can remember, it was my first taste of ground buffalo. I agree with my wife who described it as “a more flavorful turkey burger”. The meat was leaner than a beef patty, but much juicier than a turkey patty. Over all the buffalo burger was a winner, well cooked, well topped and with great bread.
My Haute Dog ($7.95) was a smoked venison sausage, split in half lengthwise and sandwiched between two pieces of a French baguette. The dog is topped with horseradish mustard, blue cheese cream, and cioppolini onions. I liked the idea of the blue cheese cream, but the horseradish mustard way overpowered it. The flavors came together though, and the nicely toasted baguette was a perfect wrapper. Like the buffalo burger, I hadn’t had venison sausage before. 2 for 2 on new meats.
There were two soups on the menus that day, potato leek and lima bean. I ordered a cup of the potato leek to share. The soup was good, but was the very thin and brothy, I like my potato leek soups a little thicker. As far as I could tell, there wasn’t any cream either, the broth was the color of the stock (chicken, I assume). The soup wasn’t bad, but wasn’t remarkable either.
We did love the burger and dog. Two unique takes on American classics. I would have pictures, but there were no fewer than three 8×11 signs saying “no photography”. I’m always curious what spawns those types of signs. Is it blogger/yelp/chowhound backlash? Fear of copycats? Seems a little silly to me.
It does take a little while for the food to be prepared, but there is a nice patio to sit on. There isn’t much indoor seating, other than a small bar area.
Service was friendly and courteous. A lot of customers from the main store were in and out of the cafe. Most for some great looking coffee drinks. Others ordered meals and the servers at the cafe announce when the orders are ready over the PA system so customers could hear no matter where they were.
Cafe Surfas
8777 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
310-558-1458
Breakfast Served 8:30AM- 3PM Monday - Saturday, 10AM Sundays
Lunch Served From 11AM- 3PM
By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.
H.C. says:
October 29th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
Hmm… I didn’t notice the no photography signs (or at least no one bothered enforcing when I went & blogged about it. Alas, I’ve never gone to the cafe at around meal time, but have had a variety of their baked goods and found them all pretty good (lavender lemon bars, caramel apple bars, caneles) - the Monin-syrup-flavored Italian sodas are something special too.
While it’s hard to actually set my mind for a meal there (given all the other new Culver City options that sprang up recently), I’ll probably give it a try if I happen to be spontaneously in the area. Thanks for the post!
Jonah says:
October 30th, 2007 at 10:05 am
H.C. - Maybe you’re the reason they put up the signs! Kidding. I agree with you that it’s hard to think about going there just for a meal. We went since we were planning on shopping there anyway. Also, might be good to fill your belly a bit before going through the main store and filling up your cart with spur of the moment cravings.
Chubbypanda says:
October 30th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
I don’t like places with “No photography” signs. Seems unnecessarily hostile. Also makes me wonder what they have to hide.
thranduil says:
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
My wife and I totally love Surfas Cafe (and also the actual store!). Hadn’t seen the no photography signs before, but we’ve been busy and haven’t been out that way for several months so not sure if that is a new thing.
Neil F. says:
February 27th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Gotta be straight about this place. I get a really bad vibe. I had some kind of lobster sandwich there recently, and was pretty ill by the time I got home. It was not ‘food poisoning’ quality ill, but I was nauseous nonetheless. My experience with the staff there left me a little sick to my stomach as well…very rude…especially one woman who claimed to be the executive chef. Treated me like I was a culinary idiot, when in reality, I was just a guy paying a lot for a sick-making panini. I’m not impressed.